LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Time Inc.'s Corporate Manufacturing and Distribution division, which does everything from arranging for the printing of an issue, to having it bound, to paying-the postal service for delivering it, vests all authority for handling SI in one man, Tracy Windrum. He's 6'5" and 230 pounds, and we're glad we're in his hands.

Windrum is responsible for coordinating our advertising, editorial and circulation sides so that more than three million copies of the magazine can be produced and shipped each week before the news between the covers gets stale. It's tough enough reconciling the needs of editors, printers and distributors week in and week out, but throw in special issues like our 540-page Olympic Preview and this 212-page football spectacular and you need a man with finesse. Not to mention one with two phone lines in his Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., home. "Give me a phone, I can do anything," Windrum says.

His latest tasks have included helping to break in Time Inc.'s new Image Processing and Color Transmission (IMPACT) center, which allows us to beam four-color pages directly from our editorial offices in Manhattan to seven printing plants around the country. "It's state of the art technology," Windrum says of the process, which made its debut in our July 2 issue with coverage of the Olympic track and field trials. "No other magazine had ever done it."

Windrum began developing finesse—"It means knowing when and when not to get hot with somebody," he says—in CYO basketball leagues in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. In 1967-68, as a 6'4" center at Xaverian High, he led New York City in scoring. Just last November, he and four other ex-Clippers, including Chris Mullin, the St. John's and Olympic team star, were inducted into the Xaverian Hall of Fame.

Like vintage wine, these lifetime loyalists grow more intriguing with age. Refusing to wither on the vine, they have put together amazing attendance streaks that date back as far as 1911. What keeps these diehards going? For Giles Pellerin, who calls the USC players his &quot;children,&quot; the Trojans are like family. Lourene Wishart hasn't missed a Nebraska home game in 61 years because she likes a &quot;winner.&quot; Wes Schulmerich, an 83-year-old Oregon State fan, says he refuses to die until the Beavers win three games in a season. Indeed, it can be said that all of these devotees live for their teams.

Windrum played three seasons at Wagner College on Staten Island, and it was there that he met his wife, Catherine, who was the star of the Wagner women's team. "One of our first dates," he says, "was a Knick game."

Catherine is a two-time finisher of the New York Marathon, an organizer of the 6.2-mile Harry Chapin Memorial Race Against Hunger and the girls' track coach at Croton High School. One son, Matthew, 10, helps Mom out, moving hurdles and timing splits. Amy, 7, began riding a two-wheeler at age 3. All of which puts lots of pressure on Kevin, 4, the youngest.

Tracy, 34, stays active in a Sunday night basketball league in Port Chester, N.Y. His days in the low post for the Time Inc. team, which plays on Monday nights, are over. SI goes to press on Mondays, and "I can't really be out playing basketball," he says.